The Mourning Necklace

‘Kate Foster can pluck a dark story from the depths of history and bring it to vivid life before your eyes . . . A strong contender for my book of the year’ – Janice Hallett, bestselling author of The Appeal

Inspired by an infamous real-life case, The Mourning Necklace is the unforgettable new feminist historical novel from the Women’s Prize-longlisted author of The Maiden, Kate Foster.

They said I would swing for the crime, and I did . . .

1724. In a tavern just outside Edinburgh, Maggie Dickson’s family drown their sorrows, mourning her death yet relieved she is gone. Shame haunts them. Hanged for the murder of her newborn child, passers-by avert their eyes from her cheap coffin on its rickety cart.

But as her family pray her soul rests in peace, a figure appears at the door.

It is Maggie. She is alive.

Bruised and dazed, Maggie has little time for her family’s questions. All that matters to her is answering this one: will they hang her twice?

‘Kate excels at bringing the forgotten women of history back to life and giving them the attention they deserve’ – Claire Evans, author of The Fourteenth Letter

‘Captivating . . . Scratch beneath the surface of a Kate Foster novel and all of life is there in the most elegant prose’ – Marion Todd, author of the bestselling DI Clare Mackay series

‘Brilliant . . . [Kate Foster is] the new Hilary Mantel’ – Tina Baker, author of What We Did In The Storm

Author Biography

Kate Foster has been a national newspaper journalist for over twenty years. Growing up in Edinburgh, she became fascinated by its history and often uses it as inspiration for her stories. Her previous novels include The Maiden, which won the Bloody Scotland Crime Debut of the Year in 2023 and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2024, and The King’s Witches. The Mourning Necklace is her third novel. She lives in Edinburgh with her two children.